Influence And Implications Of Extra-linguistic Schema On Simultaneous Interpreting

What is extra-linguistic schema? How much do we depend on background knowledge during the process of interpreting? Bearing these questions in mind, the author intends to investigate the role of extra-linguistic schema in simultaneous interpreting (SI).This thesis takes schema theory and Daniel Gile’s Effort Model as the theoretical framework and designs an experiment to prove the importance of extra-linguistic schema in the process of interpretation. Following an introduction of this thesis in Chapter1, Chapter2gives a review of previous researches on extra-linguistic schema and discusses its application in SI. Chapter3is an empirical research that focuses on the design and the methodology of the experiment. The author has selected ten student interpreters who have received the training of SI for at least one year and divided them into the control group and the experimental group. The former was provided solely with the vocabulary of the test, while the latter was given materials of background information besides the vocabulary. Chapter4uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the interpreting quality of the control group and the experimental group. In Chapter5, the author reaches a conclusion that extra-linguistic schema plays a significant role in interpreting, but high-level linguistic capacity can make up for the lack of background knowledge.Finally, the author suggests that interpreters should apply schema theory in their interpreting practice. They are encouraged to expose themselves to different types of listening materials with the aim to enlarge and update their existing schemata. The author hopes that this thesis will be helpful for the further study of extra-linguistic schema’s influence on interpreting.